People's Democracy

ON January 24, four Left parties organised rallies throughout the country in protest against the ongoing move of the BJP-led union government to impose President’s Rule in West Bengal at the behest of the railway minister Ms Mamata Banerjee. Taking a united stand, the Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Revolutionary Socialist Party and Forward Bloc voiced protest against the centre, and criticised the Trinamul Congress leader Ms Banerjee, for using violence against innocent people to get President’s Rule imposed in the West Bengal in a bid to come to power in the state.

Speaking at the Bengal Day meeting organised on the day in New Delhi, CPI(M) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet said the day was being observed as the Protest Day throughout the country. The Left parties have taken to the streets all over the country to protest against the move to impose President’s Rule in Bengal. The spurt in violence being witnessed in Bengal has its roots in the Trinamul-BJP desperation as they find that it will be impossible to come to power in Bengal through elections. For them, he said, the only way out was to get the Left Front government in the state dismissed. Surjeet further said a former US ambassador’s admission that funds had been earmarked to get the communist government of Kerala toppled and the Purulia arms-drop case in Bengal pointed to the intention of vested interests to intensify the violence in Bengal. This was aimed at creating a situation so that the CPI(M)-led government of Bengal could be unseated.

Surjeet said the intention of the BJP and the NDA to remain in power is evident from the way they are trying to overturn the fundamentals of the constitution to reverse the democratic process. They are openly advocating anti-democratic changes in the constitution so that they may remain in power for 5 years without interruption. Surjeet warned that the people would give a fitting reply if any attempt was made to unseat a democratically elected state government. The Left Front had decided to expose the centre’s plan and it would go to the people to make them aware about this ill-motivated plan.

Speaking on the occasion, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan said the Trinamul Congress chief Ms Mamata Banerjee was responsible for the political violence in West Bengal, and alleged that she has created a bloody situation in the state with the aim of realising her ambition of occupying the chief minister’s chair in the state. Bardhan accused the centre of not fully investigating the Purulia arms-drop case and letting the accused go scot-free. He said that, despite the acts of intimidation and terror tactics, the Trinamul Congress-BJP combine would lose the elections. Concerning the charge of unleashing political violence in Midnapore district, the Left Front has made it clear that it would make the issue a major point in its propaganda offensive in the run-up to the elections.

Speaking to a full house, Forward Bloc leader Debranjan said the centre’s move was an exercise in futility. The dismissal of the communist government of Kerala boomeranged on the plotters themselves, strengthened the Left and laid the foundation of a long Left rule in the state. RSP leader Abani Roy, MP, also spoke on the occasion.

The meeting in Delhi was presided over by noted Hindi writer and actor, Bhisham Sahni, who praised the 24 years' long rule of the Left Front in Bengal. He said Bengal in these long years witnessed service to the poor. The Left Front rule did not witness even one single scam. The Left Front government remained untainted by corruption, and there was no communal violence in the state, while other state governments and the central government were mired in corrupt scams or faced communal violence. He said he was personally inspired by the Left ideology that worked for the uplift of the poor and that was why he was happy to preside over the meeting. (INN)

ROTEST Day demonstrations against the undemocratic move of the Trinamul Congress and its ally, the BJP, in West Bengal were organised in Chennai, Coimbatore, Trichy, Madurai, Salem, Tirunelveli and other places in Tamil Nadu and also in Pondicherry.

A large number of cadres of the Left parties took part in the demonstrations. Leaders of other parties like the AIADMK, Tamil Manila Congress, Janata Dal (S), Dravida Kazhagam and National League greeted the demonstrators in all these centres.